The formation of vias in glass or organic substrates can be very slow, with difficulties achieving tight pitches and very small via dimensions. In fact, known processing methods for forming vias in glass are prone to creating defects in the substrate (e.g., laser ablation, electric discharge, blasting). Some of these methods also struggle to create through silicon vias (TSVs) with sidewall angles within a few degrees of vertical. In these cases, it has been observed that non-vertical sidewalls significantly degrade transmission through the vias. Also, it is difficult to plate aspect ratios greater than depth/diam=10 in glass or organic substrates.